I first discovered Trivium somewhere between their first and second album. I saw them open a show at the Recher Theater in Towson, MD (I want to say it was with Iced Earth and Beyond the Embrace. Speaking of Beyond the Embrace, whatever happened to them, they were awesome.) I’d never heard of Trivium but young Matt Heafy entranced me with his incredible mix of clean and harsh vocals and his energetic stage presence.

The second album (first with Roadrunner) was not released yet but they had the first album for sale at the merch booth and I picked up a copy. I don’t want to sound like I’m tooting my own horn, but I knew when I heard them that day they were going to be a force to be reckoned with in the metal community. “Ascendency” proved that when it was released. By the time “The Crusade” hit I was hailing them as the saviors of metal and the band most likely to be the Metallica of their generation.

Each album has been a little different in style, some with more clean vocals, some with more harsh. By the time “Shogun” finally came out Trivium could do no wrong in my eyes. This was nearly a perfect album in my opinion. I saw them again at the 2009 Mayhem festival and of course the crowd was much bigger and they headlined their stage. They had arrived.

“In Waves” just came out two weeks ago and it is as usual a technically proficient album. They are big enough that there are no worries that the album won’t sound perfect and polished. While I would have lapped up a “Shogun” part two, the sound has changed a little once again. With each new album I have always liked the latest a little more than the last. That has not changed this time around.

”In Waves” feels even tighter than “Shogun” if that is possible; surgically precise it feels sharp enough to cut but at the same time is capable of bludgeoning you with the low end. The clean vocals are catchy as hell and the harsh vocals punish you with their intensity. They’ve had clean albums and they’ve had harsh albums, welcome to the perfect mix of both.